City considers increased pay for commission

QCS Senior Writer

Tucumcari city commissioners agreed to allow City Manager Jared Langenegger to look into the possibility of increasing the annual salaries of commissioners, the mayor and the municipal judge during Monday’s special meeting at City Hall.

Langenegger said that the last increase for those positions was approved in 2008.

Currently the annual salaries for a commissioner is $3,600, mayor $4,800 and municipal judge $14,355.

There should be an increase to the salaries of the commissioners with the increased amount of work they have been doing with special meetings and functions, said Mayor Robert Lumpkin.

Lumpkin said any pay increase would not take effect until the next election of each commission seat.

“In essence we are not just giving ourselves a raise,” Lumpkin said. “We are increasing the amount of annual salary for the next commissioner elected due the increase in duties they will have.”

Lumpkin asked that Langenegger look into the possibility of increasing commissioners’ annual salary by $1,000. He said the additional increases to the mayor’s and municipal judges salaries also needed to be explored.

The commission next focused on the hard decision of approving the request for proposal to the Non-Metro Area Agency on Aging for congregate meals, home meals and transportation for the Tucumcari Senior Citizen’s Center.

Langenegger said in the past, Tucumcari has acted as agent for both House and Logan Senior Citizens Centers. Although he said in reviewing the contract with Non-Metro AAA that cost could be in excess of $100,000 to the tax payers of Tucumcari.

“The commissioners were elected by the residents and taxpayers of Tucumcari and while I don’t want to seem unkind or harsh it is not fair to ask them to pay for the services at House or Logan,” said Commissioner John Mihm, who said that the RFP submitted should be for Tucumcari alone and the commission asks that Langenegger reach out to county commissioners to help those entities in the county with their funding.

Langenegger said he would reach out to Logan and House officials and offer assistance in helping them to fill out and submit their own RFP application to Non-Metro AAA for senior services.

Other items before the commission:

• Discussion of submitting an RFP for operation of the bar and catering services at the Tucumcari Convention Center.

• Approval of Tucumcari General Insurance as the city’s provider.

• Approval of change of order for the Sands Dorsey park to reflect a change in the estimated total of $176,467 to $110,883. The totals are for the estimated cost of building a park at the site of the demolished Sands Dorsey building.